As an on-air talent, I’ve worked in a few different size markets. One thing I’ve seen that’s the same across all the boards is the crutch that is show prep. Over the years I’ve noticed how much the on-air staff relies on those bits you get from the paid service that’s used in every station in your building.

Why is using show prep bad? It’s not. But it can be. Especially if your shows are lazy and only use what’s given to them. Do you know why? The station next door to you is using that exact same information in the exact same daypart. When I did mornings a couple years ago, I begged for different prep. EVERYONE in the building was using the same service! Of course, the company didn’t want to pay for it. I did what I could and found our own material, and in turn, found I was getting more entertaining stuff than what was in that stale show prep. Bonus: We were DIFFERENT from all the other stations in the market! I was finding things before it ended up in that prep! We made our own sound bites…we essentially went old school. You don’t have to go off the prep.

Recently, I was driving to work and flipping through the local stations. As I was listening to one station I noticed they used the “welcome” to whatever day it was sound clip. I switched to another station I knew was in the same building and guess what? They were using the exact same “welcome” sound clip. It wasn’t great. What makes you stand alone from all the others giving the same “entertainment” pieces? What sets you apart from anyone else? When it comes to ratings, that plays a huge part in how well you do.

Yes, show prep can be great for ideas. IDEAS. Please don’t read, verbatim, the stories you see. I’ve heard that as well. The internet is never ending and chalk full of things to talk about! I urge you to spend a day to just search. Try to find sites you can use daily for prep. Bookmark them. Create benchmarks from them. Be UNIQUE. Be different from the other stations in your area. I can guarantee you, your company isn’t the only one using that prep service. Create your own type of service!

I had at least seven websites I favored. They were all bookmarked. Daily, I’d go to each site and find something for the next day. Bored Panda, Lifehacker, Distractify, Fark…those are all great sites to grab stories.

Also, YOU were hired because YOU are entertaining! Use real life things that have happened to you! For instance, my mom, God love her, would text me the MOST random things. My morning show partner thought it was hysterical. I mean these were off the wall, out of the blue, no back story, just random things she’d text. So we wrote an intro for it, sent it to our voice guy, and created a segment called “Texts from Steph’s Mom.” Before you know it, people were messaging us asking why we didn’t read one if we missed one that day! Silly things like that can be crucial in connecting to your listeners. The more they feel like they’re a part of your life, the more they’ll listen. Don’t ever disregard YOU as a piece of entertainment.

There’s an endless amount of “prep” already around you. Don’t use your paid service as a crutch.